Sunday

I got up early this morning because even though it is Sunday (a) it is my turn to have Mum and Dad here for lunch and (b) I seem to have a million and one things that I have started (for me and for other people) and I just don't know when I will find the time to finish them.

I know all retired people say it but I really don't know how I ever had time to work.  The time here seems to fly by at twice the speed it did when I was working and I just seem to be far too disorganised nowadays.

It is halfway through November and I haven't even started making my Christmas cards let alone write any and I want to get a few special ones ready so that I can ask Diana to take them over to the UK and post them for me - she is going for a visit I am not making her hand deliver my cards!!! For the past few years we have given a donation to charity rather than send out loads of Christmas cards normally our money has gone to Cancer Research but after the events of last year we will be giving our money to The Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Richard.

A friend has also asked me to make a few cards for her and so I thought I had better pull my finger out and get some sorted!  I hadn't realised how low I was getting on blank cards to I will need to order some more for next year - I shall get my lovely Mother in Law to bring them out with her when she comes over on holiday with John's stepdad next August.  She generally gets an eclectic mix of things in the post which are headed in our direction!

After such a beautiful day yesterday it was rather more overcast today.  It is now when the conservatory comes into its own and even the weakest sunshine gets magnified and it is very pleasant and warm in there.  Mr Boo was taking advantage of the warmth in his favourite tub-chair.  We were amazed when Mum and Dad arrived and they said it was warmer up in Droushia than it had been when they left Emba. - this is unheard of - it will probably snow tomorrow!!

I desperately need to get out in the garden but as we are about to embark on the pool project it might be a bit of a waste of time as we will probably have people tramping in and our of the garden rather than through the conservatory so the garden may get a bit of a hammering.  I noticed that we had the most horrendous mushroom growth outside the woodstore - it looked like something from The Hobbit!!!  We think it sprouts from where we used to have the tree - the turps tree as we called it - and try as John might he had never actually managed to get rid of it completely.

You can tell it is my turn to cook dinner as the kitchen began to resemble downtown Beirut with pots and pans everywhere.  Today we were having a roast stuffed pork loin with roast potatoes, carrots, leeks, peas and red cabbage.  Then for pud I have made little apple crumbles for Mum and John and then Dad and I are having fresh fig crumble.

Before Mum and Dad moved to Cyprus John and I used to spend many a Sunday in Keinton Mandeville having lunch and we have continued the tradition.

We are four and a half year's in and still doing it - thank goodness for the internet because we haven't run out of recipes yet periodically we venture out to a restaurant just to ring the changes but mindful of the way that Dad likes his vegetables we struggle sometimes to find somewhere that keeps us all happy!!!  John had a moan this week because I forgot the Yorkshire puddings and left them in the freezer!!

Apart from that little faux-pas I managed to have everything under control which meant we were able to get in half a game of Nomination Whist before eating.

It was a good lunch - in fact we said that if our Christmas Dinner was anything like that we would all be happy so that is always nice when you have taken time to cook a meal for somebody.

On the subject of Christmas we now have our first two cards.  One from my Aunty Joyce and Uncle David who were here just recently and who sensible left their cards here and one from Mum and Dad who wanted to give us our present early.

They normally give us some money for a specific project that we are doing and knowing that the work on the pool will start next week they wanted to give us our Christmas money early so that we could put it to good use.

So a really really big thank-you to Mum and Dad for their generous contribution to the project which means we will be able to complete it exactly as we had hoped.

Whilst we were discussing presents Mum mentioned that she was looking for a new pressure cooker as she and Dad love home made soup - the only trouble is that pressure cookers tend to be rather heavy so I suggested that she might like one of the new all-in-one soup makers and that John and I would get one sent over and that could be her Christmas present.  We are going to have bugger-all to open on Christmas Morning but hey - who cares!!

We didn't do too much once Mum and Dad went home - in fact we had a bit of a chill-out with a glass of wine and some easy viewing TV in the shape of Friday's episode of Gogglebox - our guilty pleasure!!!

This week it contained the line "you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter!" - CLASSIC!!